Column: Caving in to the pressure to come clean

My husband bought a pressure washer. He’s wanted one for a long time – not as long as I’ve wanted new living room furniture, but close.

I’m not crazy about anything with the verb “washer.” It all means work: dishwasher, clothes washer, window washer and yes, pressure washer.

I had oodles of justifiable reasons for nixing the pressure washer. For one, new living room furniture that’s used daily, clothes and shoes that you wear, books you read, flowers you sniff and chocolate that you savor – these all make sense.

But a pressure washer? How useful it that?

To me, a pressure washer is faddish. It’s only used when something big needs cleaned. Or when everyone else pressure washes their stuff and now, all of a sudden, your stuff looks dirty. If they would have left theirs as is, no one would need a pressure washer.

Then there’s the space issue:

“Where do you keep something like a pressure washer?” I asked my husband.

“In a shed,” he answered.

“But we don’t have a shed,” I replied.

“Right.” He responded. “I keep saying … I need a shed.”

If we did have a shed, I don’t see the pressure washer coming back out once it went in. Seriously, how many times can you pressure wash the same thing? It’s like a disposable camera. Use it once and done.

To my dismay, the pressure washer went on sale. I’ll admit, it’s hard to pass up a sale. My husband kept talking it up. I was feeling the pressure. Finally, I said, “OK. I don’t care. Get the pressure washer.”

I was brainwashed. I never wanted the pressure washer. I couldn’t understand the excitement. My husband couldn’t wait to use it.

He bought it and immediately, pressure washed the patio. I found something else to do, something without the verb, “washer.”

“Hey, Karen!” My husband called. “Come see how nice the patio looks.”

I was amazed.

“It’s beautiful!” I exclaimed. “What a difference. I can even see the ants and bugs better.”

It looked as if Mr. Clean zipped across it and scrubbed up every speck of grime from the last 10 years. I guess I’d come clean too if I was under that much pressure from Mr. Clean.

I don’t even want to wear my shoes on the patio now, because it’s like … clean. My husband was proud of his work.

“I like your pressure washer.” I told him.

“You should have bought it a long time ago.”

This story was originally published July 11, 2016 at 2:30 PM with the headline "Column: Caving in to the pressure to come clean."